The driver’s act of arson was recorded on a CCTV camera installed at the car owner’s portico where the vehicles were parked.
As per reports, the accused was engaged as the driver of Ajit Kumar Nayak, a resident of Krishna Garden Apartment located at Khandagiri in Bhubaneswar. However, he was disengaged from the job as the vehicle frequently developed technical snags and turned unreliable.
“My car was quite old and always developed technical snags, thus making it undependable. So we decided to not use it and asked the driver to look for a job at some other places. He was with us for four years till May last year. In between, he had developed a habit of taking narcotics. Although I got my car repaired in November last year, I appointed a new driver. Seeing this, he nursed a grudge against me and set our vehicles on fire.” he said.
The CCTV image shows that the accused entered the portico at 3 am and set the vehicles ablaze.
Nayak’s neighbour said, “The fire was so intense that we could not go near to douse it. We called the fire brigade to control the blaze."
The police has registered a complaint and launched a manhunt to arrest the accused who went absconding after committing the crime.
